Born John Joseph Nicholson on April 22, 1937, in Neptune, New Jersey, Jack Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is one of the most prominent American motion-picture actors of his generation. Nicholson’s career has contained some of the seminal film in Hollywood history, including Chinatown and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and his role as Jack in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has become iconic.
He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and for As Good as It Gets. He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three), and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (four). Nicholson is well-known for playing Jack Torrance in The Shining and The Joker in 1989′s Batman, among many other roles.
Jack is the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). June had married Italian American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) six months earlier in Elkton, Maryland, on October 16, 1936. Furcillo was already married. Although he reportedly offered to take care of the child, June’s mother Ethel insisted that she bring up the baby, partly so that June could pursue her dancing career. Although Furcillo claimed to be Nicholson’s father and to have committed bigamy by marrying June, biographer Patrick McGilligan asserted in Jack’s Life that Latvian-born Eddie King (originally Edgar A. Kirschfeld), June’s manager, may have been Nicholson’s biological father. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. Nicholson’s mother was of Irish, English, and Dutch descent, though he and his family reportedly self-identified as Irish.
Nicholson, whose father abandoned his family, grew up believing that his grandmother was his mother and that his mother was his older sister; it was not until he had attained fame that Nicholson himself learned the truth. It was when a journalist for Time magazine who was doing a feature on Nicholson informed him of the fact. Nicholson has stated that he does not know who his biological father is and has chosen not to have a DNA test or pursue the matter
A class clown, sports fan, and honour student, Nicholson studied drama in high school and welcomed the opportunity to live in Los Angeles with his sister, June, upon his graduation. The 17-year-old soon landed a job as a gopher for MGM Studios, and invested his income in acting classes. In 1958, he received his first break with ‘The Cry Baby Killer’, which was produced by his friend Roger Corman. The film marked the first of several collaborations during the early 1960s, and although Jack was grateful for the work, he longed to escape the “B” movie genre.
Nicholson is one of only two actors who has been nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s (the other being Michael Caine). He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award. Notable films in which he has starred include, in chronological order, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Reds, Terms of Endearment, Batman, A Few Good Men, Hoffa, Wolf, As Good as It Gets, About Schmidt, Something’s Gotta Give and The Departed.
Nicholson has been romantically linked to numerous actresses and models, including Michelle Phillips, Bebe Buell, and Lara Flynn Boyle. Nicholson’s longest relationship was for 16 years with actress Anjelica Huston, daughter of film director John Huston, from 1973 to 1989. However, the relationship ended when the media reported that Rebecca Broussard had become pregnant with Nicholson’s child. Nicholson and Broussard had two children together, Lorraine (born 1990) and Raymond Nicholson (born 1992). Nicholson’s other children are Jennifer (born 1963 with Sandra Knight) and Honey Hollman (b. 1981 with Winnie Hollman). Actress Susan Anspach contends that her son, Caleb Goddard (born 1970), was fathered by Nicholson, though he is not convinced he is the father.
Jack Nicholson Photo Gallery
